Craving for a steamy bowl of hot noodle soup? This Beef Udon, my-go-to Japanese comfort dish is absolutely heart-warming. Tender sliced beef on top of slippery warm udon noodle in a savory broth. What’s not to love?
When we visited Takayama in Japan this past summer, we enjoyed this warm beef udon noodle soup with Hida beef. This comfort dish is made of warm udon noodles in a savory hot soup, topped with thinly sliced beef seasoned and stir fried. Today we’re going to recreate this Beef Udon recipe back in our own kitchen.
Watch How To Make Beef Udon 肉うどんの作り方
Beef udon (Niku Udon) is a Japanese comfort dish made of tender sliced beef seasoned and stir fried on top of warm udon noodle in a savory dashi broth.
Easy Beef Udon Packed with Flavors
Despite its simplicity, this beef udon recipe is packed with tons of flavors! The savory dashi broth, well-seasoned beef, caramelized scallion and chewy smooth noodles – that’s all you really need for a well-composed bowl of noodle soup.
The best part of this recipe (besides it is so delicious!!!) is how easy it is to make at home. We use only basic condiments in most Japanese cooking – soy sauce, mirin, sake – and udon noodles. You can find these condiments at Japanese or Asian grocery stores (and some American grocery stores).
Use Japanese Soup Stock ‘Dashi’ To Make Your Broth for Beef Udon
For the most flavorful broth for your udon, you will need to make Japanese soup stock known as dashi to complete this dish. I have a complete guide on how to make dashi at home. The easiest way is to make a big batch so you can use your homemade dashi for this udon soup recipe. The broth will taste much better and you would want to drink up the entire beef udon soup!
If dashi sounds foreign to you, don’t feel intimidated. You can always take a short cut and use dashi powder or dashi packet instead (which takes 5 minutes. See how we use it). Dashi is much easier to make compared to vegetable or chicken/beef stock and it takes less than 30 minutes to make the broth from scratch.
Watch How to Make Dashi だしの作り方
Quick and savory homemade dashi with kombu (seaweed) and bonito flakes.
Fresh Udon for Best Texture
Since it’s such a simple dish, fresh udon would taste the best for the noodle soup. But I know fresh udon is not always easily accessible. The second option would be the frozen type. You can find them available at Japanese and many Asian grocery stores, and sometimes at American grocery stores if you are lucky. Other, dried noodles would work fine.
Wish to learn more about Udon Noodles? Click here.
Hungry for More Udon Noodle Recipes?
Don’t miss out these delicious recipes with udon noodles:
- Yaki Udon (Stir-Fried Udon Noodle)
- Curry Udon
- Nabeyaki Udon (Hot Pot Style Udon Noodle Served in Donabe)
- Kitsune Udon
I hope you enjoy making Beef Udon! If you try it, don’t forget to share your picture on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter with #JustOneCookbook. Thank you so much for reading, and till next time!
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- 1 Tbsp neutral flavor oil (vegetable, canola, etc)
- ½ Negi/Long Green Onion (sub: ½ leek or 2 scallions/green onions)
- ½ lb thinly sliced beef (chuck or rib eye) (½ = 227 g) (ribeye or top sirloin)
- 2 packages Udon noodles (I like frozen sanuki noodles)
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce
- ½-1 Tbsp sugar
- Narutomaki (fish cakes) (few slices)
- 3 sprigs Mitsuba (Japanese parsley) (Optional)
- 1 green onion/scallion
- Shichimi Togarashi (Japanese seven spice) (for taste)
Gather all the ingredients.
- In a small saucepan, add 2 cups (480 ml) dashi and 1 tsp. sugar.
- Add 1 Tbsp. mirin and 1 Tbsp. soy sauce and bring it to a boil.
- Taste the soup and adjust the taste with Kosher salt as it will enhance the flavor without adding additional sugar or soy sauce. Cover and keep it on low heat.
- Cut the Tokyo negi (or use sub) and Narutomaki (fish cake) diagonally.
- Cut the Mitsuba (optional) into small pieces and thinly slice one onion/scallion (used for topping).
- Cut the thinly sliced meat into bite size pieces.
- Bring a big pot of water to a boil. Once boiling, cook the frozen udon for 1 minute. Loosen up the noodles once they started to separate.
- Once the udon is done cooking, use fine sieve to drain water and transfer to serving bowls.
- While cooking udon, you can start heating the large frying pan. Once it’s heated, add 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil and cook the Tokyo negi until tender.
- Add the meat and brown all sides. Don’t move the meat around until it’s nicely seared.
- Once the meat is nicely browned, add ½ to 1 Tbsp. sugar and 1 Tbsp. soy sauce. When the sauce has caramelized and slightly thicken, turn off the heat.
- By this time, the noodle should be in the serving bowls. Pour the hot soup over the udon noodles in the bowls. Then serve the meat on top of the udon noodles.
- Place the narutomaki (fish cake) and garnish with scallion and mitsuba. If you like it spicy, sprinkle Shichimi Togarashi (Japanese 7 spice). Enjoy!
Recipe by Namiko Chen of Just One Cookbook. All images and content on this site are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission. If you’d like to share this recipe on your site, please re-write the recipe in your own words and link to this post as the original source. Thank you.
I love udon soups so much! Since it’s getting cold at night here in NM, this is perfect! I’ll be making it this week! As always, Nami, thank you for the great recipe.
Hi Madeline! It’s my pleasure and thanks so much for reading my blog post! It’s getting colder here in California too, so I’ll be making this more often. 🙂 Hope you enjoy the recipe! xo
Delicious looking noodle bowl.
Great timing! Tomorrow is my monthly on line groceries arrival day: busy, busy! And this is easy, easy 🙂 ! And I ordered two packets of [sadly dry] udon yesterday! Guess what is on the menu – and I have had it before and am looking forwards to your recipe!!
Hi Eha! I hope you enjoy this recipe! Dried noodles works great too. 🙂 Thanks for always checking my recipes. xo
Thats what you call comfort in a bowl
I really should start making my own dashi — I usually just use the packets. Anyway, this is a wonderful looking soup! So full of flavor and texture — really nice. Thaks!
That looks really good! A scrumptious and comforting dish.
Cheers,
Rosa
We’ve been playing around with different Asian noodles this year and udon is one of our favorites. Can’t to make this! Thanks Nami!
Thank you for the recipe, I love your blog! I just had a couple of questions, does udon soup reheat well for lunches? Can you use shabu shabu meat or sukiyaki meat? Also is there a particular brand of udon noodles that you recommend?
Thank you again so much!
Anne
Hi Anne! Thank you so much for reading my blog! Sure, you can reheat the udon soup. But when do you cook it? Like previous night? I use Shabu shabu meat (in this recipe). Yes! I do love Sanukiya Udon (frozen udon). Sanuki udon is thick and chewy and it’s my favorite! MUCH better than refrigerated udon noodles. Since you asked about shabu shabu or sukiyaki meat, I assume you have good Japanese supermarket. They should have these frozen udon…. 🙂
https://www.justonecookbook.com/pantry_items/udon/
Hi there,
My daughter just loved the beef udon for dinner! The next day I made it for her lunch & cooked the meat that morning. I live in Millbrae so I usually shop for Japanese food in San Mateo…next time I will buy that brand of udon noodles. Thank you again!
Hi Anne! I live in Peninsula too and go to Nijiya and Suruki. Nijiya has Sanukiya Udon in a freezer section, and I remember Suruki has different but similar brand when I tried to buy the same brand. I’m so glad to hear your daughter enjoyed it. Thanks so much for your kind feedback. 🙂
Those are my 2 favorite stores !!! We also like to buy the sashimi at Suruki, have you ever tried?
Yes I’ve tried. I like sashimi from Suruki more than Nijiya (overall) but I own a sashimi store online (FishforSushi.com) and I’ve been buying most of sashimi from my own store. When you defrost your own fish, it’s the best quality you could get… but I still go to Suruki for seafood that we don’t carry. 🙂
I will check out FishforSushi.com, thank you for the recommendation! I really enjoy your blog & recipes!
Thanks so much! I’m happy to hear you enjoy my recipes. Thank you for your kind words! Have a nice day. 🙂
YES, udon is the best winter food! Or food for all year long. 🙂 Love the simple, but tasty broth. I am drooling over this now.
Hi Nami,
I absolutely love cooking in Japan and learning about new healthy recipes unique to Japan. Also, I love good food photography as well. Your site has both. Bravo!
I launched my own blog, “My Little Japanese Kitchen” last month, and hope to build it into a resource, not just for cooking in Japan, but to share my philosophy about living, cooking, and eating healthy in the traditional Japanese style.
In the modern food marketplace, healthy food options seem to me to be slowly disappearing. We are bombarded with media messages to consume more factory-produced foods that I would argue are less than healthy.
In Japan, a culture famous for producing very healthy cuisine, I have observed some of these healthy habits being lost for modern fast food and pre packed processed food items.
This is contributing to more diet-related health concerns, especially for the younger generations, and the elderly, both groups of which may not fully know about the adverse impact of processed factory food sources.
I hope to see more healthy recipes and insight to traditional healthy Japanese recipes and cooking methods on your website in future postings.
I think as bloggers, we must also be educators as well, and not just for recipes that taste good, but recipes that are good for our bodies too.
What do you think?
Mateo
My Little Japanese Kitchen
http://heavyz.blog.com/
Hi Mateo! Nice to meet you (virtually), and thanks for writing! I’m so happy to hear you enjoy cooking in Japan and congratulations on starting a food blog! It’s wonderful that you can broadcast your experience in Japan, and I wish you great success with your blog. My blog focuses more on typical home cook meal (家庭料理) enjoyed in Japan, but I also throw in some of our family’s favorites (not necessarily Japanese) as that was the core of my food blog. I hope my recipes and cooking methods are helpful to others as it might not be “typical” in other cuisine. And I totally believe that cooking healthy foods and choosing good ingredients are always in my mind as a mom or a food blogger. 🙂
P.S. your site is not working… Was the link correct?
Oh, right. My service provider is a cheap one, so there are periods when their server gets knocked offline. Sorry for that. It has been working well the past few days though. I only have 15 recipes posted, but I have about ten already photographed and ready to go. Just need to write and edit them. Once My Little Japanese Kitchen gets a good audience, I will migrate to a paid provider. You should be able to get to my blog now.
On another topic, I am very interested in the varieties of traditional Japanese dishes that are prepared and eaten to have a specific impact on various bodily functions; like daikon for good circulation, Goya to help regulate blood pressure, mozuku to fight cancer and boost digestion, etc. do you have a good understanding of the traditional purpose for the Japanese food you prepare? I would love to learn more about that, specifically. I think most older cooks in Japan know, but a lot of young people are forgetting why they eat certain foods for certain physical effects for good health. I hope if you visit my blog, you will comment or feedback. One last note. Your must try my recipe for Hungarian Paprikash. It is a real winner, and kids looooove it. Your blog is so awesome and a huge inspiration. Thanks for doing it and best of luck as you continue Nami.
Udon Noodles is the first thing I eat when we go to Japan! I swear I start salivating on the plane trip in anticipation. Your Udon looks absolutely perfect. I will have to try the recipe.
Thanks for sharing
Julie
Gourmet Getaways
Just made this for my udon crazy kids and they loved it! Thanks so much for posting this delicious recipe. Keep up the great work!
Hi Ai! I’m happy to hear your children enjoyed it! My daughter is crazy about udon too. 🙂 Thank you very much for your kind words!
I have made this two times now. This time I added some bok choi to the boiling dashi. Both times I have substituted soba for udon noodles. However it tastes great. Definitely comfort food. I suspect the thick, chewiness of the udon would make it even more a comfort food, so perhaps I will try that next time. Love your recipes. Thanks for sharing them.
Hi Kathy! Soba works too! I hope you try with udon next time! Thank you so much for trying this recipe and leaving the kind feedback. 🙂
Hi Nami,
Is it possible to substitute the beef with pork? Sliced beef is super pricey here.. T____T
Hi Reen! Sure you can do that! 🙂
This recipe was simple and tasted great! I followed the recipe to the letter and my family commented that it was as good as restaurant-made 肉うどん！
Hi Micah! Thank you for trying this recipe and I’m happy to hear you and your family enjoyed it! Arigato!! 🙂
Hi Nami. This is a cyber hug thank you. I love your site. Take care.
Hi Eric! Awww thank you!!! I’m so happy to hear you like my site. Thank you for your support! xoxo
I really like the pictures of the recipe. It really helps to make the dish by your own.
Hi, Nami. Thank you for amazing recipe.
Recently I go to Asian supermarket and remember your beef udon recipe. I got almost everything on the recipe. What I want to ask :
1. Do we have to boil the narutomaki before serving?
2. I skip sake and mirin, is it affect extremely with the flavour? Is there something replace them without containing alcohol?
PS. Sorry for asking so much XD
Hi Anisa! Here are my answers:
1) Naruto is actually cooked (steamed) already, so it’s now “raw”. Therefore, you can eat it out of the package. Usually it’s not warmed up when it’s served, but it’s on top of the warm noodles, then it naturally warms up. If it’s on cold noodle dish, it’s still cold. 😉
2) I have to say sake and mirin are one of the most important condiments besides soy sauce and miso in Japanese cooking. Almost all recipes use them (or one of them), and I have to say they make a difference so we use them all the time in our cooking. IF you can’t drink alcohol due to religious reasons, I understand and we have to go without it, but if it’s not, I highly recommend to use it so your food is close to authentic Japanese foods. If you have to skip alcohol, then add water + sugar instead for mirin in the recipe. It should be 1 Tbsp. water + 1 tsp. sugar. Details here:
https://www.justonecookbook.com/pantry_items/mirin/
Hope this helps!
Hi Nami,
Can you clarify the Tokyo Negi? On the ingredient list you say that Tokyo Negi and Green Onion are the same. But in step 4 &9 and 5 & 13 you distinguish them. I’m trying to find information about Tokyo Negi online but can’t find anything. Are the two the same thing? If so, how much am I suppose to use on each step? If not, are there any other names for Tokyo Negi?
Thank you,
Robin
Hi Robin! Tokyo negi is fresh produce, so I think it’ll be hard to find online unless it’s from a local farm etc… Tokyo negi might be called long negi (“Naga Negi”) or white negi (“Shiro Negi”).
I edited my steps in the recipe and I hope this time it makes sense. Tokyo negi (or substitute) is sauted (it gives sweetness to the soup) and Mitsuba and one scallion/green onion are used as garnish.
Hope it’s clear now. Thank you for asking!
Hi Nami,
Just tried this wonderful recipe tonight using bottled dashi. Got a rave review from my husband. He used to order tempura udon all the time but this beef udon is just as delicious and it is super easy to make thanks to you, Nami san. I would recommend all the novice cooks out there to try making this dish. This is a true no fail recipe.
Arigato Gozaimasu,
With love from Thailand
Hi Natcha! I’m so happy to hear that your husband enjoyed this recipe! It’s a lot easier than tempura udon. 😉 Thank you for your kind feedback!
Thank you so much for this recipe!! I made this tonight for my father in law. He’s currently undergoing treatment for his cancer and so doesn’t have much of an appetite. His favorite food is udon and he’s been missing his favorite udon restaurant, Marukame Udon in Hawaii. I surprised him with homemade udon tonight using your recipe and he LOVED it. He ate an entire bowlful! He said it’s even better than Marukame Udon. Lol! Thank you so much for sharing your recipe so that I could make my father in law this special treat. It really made his day. I can’t wait to try more of your recipes!
Hi Youngmi! I’m so happy to hear you tried this recipe and your father in law enjoyed it. Your kind feedback meant so much to me. Wishing your father in law the best. xo
I’m constantly using this website for recipes – my husband is Japanese and prefers Japanese food overall, and every recipe I follow gets an enthusiastic “うまい！” so thank you for that!
I just wanted to say, I’ve tried this recipe with both light and dark soy sauce, and I’m of the opinion that the dark suits the meat better. My husband’s kansai taste disagrees, but to each his own!
Hi NumaKuri! Thank you so much for your kind feedback on dark soy sauce and I really appreciate it. I’m happy to hear your Japanese husband enjoy the recipes too. 🙂 ありがとう！
Made this today. It was so good. Third JOC recipe that I’ve tried and they’ve all been a hit in this Jamaican household. Also made Yakisoba and Mille-Feuille Nabe. Thanks Nami.
Hi Rochelle! I’m so happy to hear you liked this recipe! I’m super excited to hear that you’re cooking Japanese food at Jamaican household. 😀 Thank you for your kind feedback. xoxo
Nami! You have done it again! We made your dashi broth and served it with buckwheat soba noodles and teriyaki mushrooms for vegetarian option. We also made your tsukune as well for those who wanted some meat. Amazing recipes thank you for them. My sister and I can’t stop coming back. Here is the link to the recipe that we adapted from yours: https://sprinkleofvanillasugar.wordpress.com/2018/01/17/how-to-make-soba-noodle-soup-in-15-minutes-gf-vegan-oil-free/
Hi Zoe! Thank you for making my dashi broth and I’m so happy you enjoyed it with soba. 😀 Your bowl of soba noodles looked really good! I need one right now for my night snack. 😉 Thank you again for your kind words. xo
Hi, made this soup last time,it was delicious.I’m going to make it tonight.Thanks for your easy to make receipes.Arigato
Hi Ramon! Thank you for trying this recipe! I’m so happy to hear you liked the recipe. Hope you enjoyed it tonight as well. 🙂
I made my own Dashi as suggested~ luckily there is a small Asian market near me! Wow this tastes just like the Niku udon I had and loved in Japan!! Actually it tastes so much better made by hand I am just so happy. I used green onion which was fine although I recommend adding some honey to the meat~ makes it sweeter! I made just one serving of noodles and only put half in. I’ll save the rest of the meat and soup for tomorrow! Thanks so much!!
Hi Katie! I’m so happy you tried this recipe with homemade dashi! You can’t achieve the delicious broth with instant dashi powder. Simple noodle soup dishes like this require good broth. 🙂 Thank you for trying this recipe and for your kind feedback!
I searched and was surprised you don’t have 水炊き（Mizutaki）recipe. It’s a healthy food and everybody can make it in the U.S.
Hi Eiji! Sure, I’ll add that to my list. Mizutaki is from Kansai / Fukuoka region, and my mom used to make Mizutaki (She’s originally from Kansai area). Very nostalgic. It’s less known and searched recipe name compared to shabu shabu etc, so I haven’t worked on this recipe yet. Thanks for reminding me!
Hello,
I just made this for my mom and sister and it was incredible! The soup broth was especially delicious. The concentrated awasi dashi combined with the other ingredients made it incredibly savory. Thanks so much for posting this!
– Collin
Hi Collin! Thank you so much for trying my recipe! I’m so happy to hear your mom and sister enjoyed this recipe. Thank you for your kind feedback. 🙂
Thanks so much for sharing this recipe! It was so tasty and so easy. I meal-prepped it for the week by doubling the recipe, then just heating the broth and beef and adding frozen udon noodles every night. I really enjoyed it with some napa cabbage and firm tofu cubes too. It’s perfect for this colder weather!
Hi Stefanie! Thank you so much for trying this recipe! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe throughout the week. Thank you for your kind feedback. xo
Hello Nami! If I cant find any Narutomaki or Dashi at any markets, what should I do? Is there anything that can be used instead? Thanks!
Hi Julian! Narutomaki can be hard to find if you don’t have a Japanese grocery store. You can skip and add something else for a bright color. If you can find “Kamaboko” (another type of fish cake which is more common), you can use it too.
Now dashi is different. It’s not something you can “buy” unless it’s dashi powder in box/jar or dashi packets. Check out this post to decide which method you like to use: https://www.justonecookbook.com/how-to-make-dashi-3-ways/
Hope that helps!
Hi! I’m excited to make this in a few days for a party. I just have one question: what kind of soy sauce do you use in this recipe for the beef and broth? I know there’s different kinds of soy sauce so I just want to be sure.
Thank you.
Hi Diana! I’m so sorry for my late response. My soy sauce is Japanese soy sauce – we don’t have “dark” or “light” soy sauce like Chinese soy sauce. 🙂
We have light-colored soy sauce, though. But it’s only used for making soup or making dishes that you don’t want the food to have a dark color. 🙂
https://www.justonecookbook.com/soy-sauce/
Hi Nami, thanks for your wonderful recipes that I love, but recently I’m pregnant & realise I probably should stop using Mirin or sake unless it’s in tiny quantities (like half teaspoon?). I’ve read that alcohol does not completely burn off in cooking & it will be present in the marinades you teach us, so just wondering on your opinion on these usage when you were pregnant? Did you continue to use them? As you said, Mirin esp is such a key ingredient in jap cooking! Thanks!
Hi Lanny! In Japan, it’s considered okay to use sake and mirin in cooking during pregnancy. Small amount of alcohol used in recipes (most of the Japanese recipes) evaporates before the liquid reaches 100C, which means most of the cooked food should not trace any alcohol. I don’t know if there is a dish that requires a lot of alcohol at this moment, but several tablespoons of sake or mirin are not considered a problem in Japan. However, it is recommended to cook sake and mirin if it’s called for non-cooked food, such as dressing or vinaigrette sauce for Cucumber Salad. If you see a recipe that requires sake/mirin, and not cooked at all, just pour them in a pot first. Cook until alcohol smell is gone (not harmful to smell the steam – just check a few times).
I’m not sure where you live but here in the US, 1 glass of wine is considered okay for pregnancy. I don’t drink alcohol in general so I wasn’t drinking during my pregnancy, but I was cooking my regular meal with sake and mirin during my pregnancy. And this method is same for cooking for young or big kids. Just don’t use non-cooked sake/mirin for them.
Hope that helps!
Hi Nami, thanks so much for your detailed response to my concerns about alcohol in sake/mirin, i really appreciate it. I definitely will take your advice about cooking them before use. I certainly didn’t want to stop using your wonderful recipes! Cheers, Lanny
Have a wonderful pregnancy, Lanny! I miss carrying a baby! 🙂 xo
Oh my goodness this was so delicious. I had to substitue some stuff but it still turned out so good and my mom loved it too.
Thank you nami for such a delicious recipe.
Hi Sara! Wonderful! I’m happy to hear your mom enjoyed it too. 🙂 Thank you for your kind feedback, Sara!
This is amazing! I love undons and this is a simple meal but it lets you feel very satisfied after you finish the meal.. Thanks again!
Hi Daphne! I’m so glad you like it and thank you for trying my recipe! xoxo
Hi, Nami! Thanks for this recipe. I love beef udon and I almost always order it at Japanese restaurants. However, I didn’t like the fact that the beef is almost always fatty and I would have a hard time removing the fat. Now that I have this recipe, I can enjoy my beef udon without having to go through so much trouble. 😊
Hi Ashlyn! That’s true, that’s the best part about cooking at home. You can make it with really good dashi and high-quality beef! Hope you enjoy! 🙂